Congress is stepping directly into Washington, D.C.’s business. This week, the House Oversight Committee is considering 14 bills that could weaken the city’s Home Rule.
Among the proposals are plans to let the president, rather than voters, pick the District’s attorney general, reinstate cash bail for a long list of crimes, repeal youth sentencing reforms, and shift school funding away from D.C. public schools to private vouchers.
The timing is not lost. All of this comes as President Donald Trump’s 30-day crime emergency is set to expire on Wednesday. Since that order on Aug. 11, federal officers have made hundreds of arrests across the city. Mayor Muriel Bowser says the bills are an outright attack on D.C. residents.
She said laws affecting the District should be made by the District and warned that Congress is trying to undo decades of self-governance.
Will the rights of 700,000 D.C. residents matter, or will Congress and the president continue to treat the District like federal property?
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
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